Ultraman: Towards the Future
Ultraman: Towards the Future, known as , is the tenth entry of the Ultra Series. It was produced in 1990 in by the South Australian Film Corporation and 's Tsuburaya Productions (the creators of the Ultraman character). There were 13 episodes filmed (the first 6 episodes were the "Goudes Threat" story arc). At the time, Eco-awareness was at a high, and many episodes included environmental themes. Ultraman's three minute time limit is also attributed to "Earth's polluted atmosphere" in this version. Although simply called "Ultraman" in the original Australian version, the series was titled Ultraman Great for its Japanese release; the 13-episode show was originally featured on home video and Laser Disc there on 25 September 1990, and was later broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System from 8 July to 30 September 1995. It was the first series produced in the era. The show was distributed in the by , the show was broadcast in weekly syndication from 4 January to 28 March 1992. The series generated a merchandise line including toys, comic books and a video game. Production Ultraman Great is the only Ultraman whose costume is made of spandex (such as the suits used for / ) as opposed to traditional rubber-based suits of all other Ultraman series. Plot Jack Shindo and Stanley Haggard are members of the first manned expedition to Mars, and on the red planet find a giant slug-like monster, Goudes/Gudis. Suddenly the giant warrior, Ultraman, arrives and fights Goudes, but is knocked down for a period. Shindo is pinned by a rockslide and Haggard tries to escape in their ship but is blown up by Goudes. It is then that Ultraman gets up, and when he is on the verge of victory Goudes changes into a virus and travels to Earth, where it plans on corrupting all life, mutating other creatures into monsters and awakening existing ones. Needing a human host to survive on Earth, Ultraman joins with Jack, allowing him to become the mighty alien when all seems lost. He joins the Universal Multipurpose Agency, or UMA, in order to help them battle the monsters. Halfway through the series Goudes reappears, more powerful than before. It imprisons Ultraman, but Jack distracts it by ultimately showing it the futility of its mission. Even if it does manage to corrupt all life, eventually there will be nothing else to corrupt. The distraction allows Ultraman to break free and destroy Goudes once and for all. For the rest of the series the environmental themes are stronger and the monsters usually arise from human pollution. In the series finale, a doomsday scenario begins with the appearance of three powerful monsters: Kilazee, Kodalar, and the Earth itself, which tries to wipe out the human race for abusing it. Ultraman is defeated by Kodalar, but Jack survives. Ultimately the humans use an ancient disc to destroy Kodalar by reflecting its own power at it and Ultraman defeats Kilazee and carries it into space, separating Jack from him and restoring him on Earth as a normal human. The victory is seen as another chance for the human race. Characters Ultras UMA * Colonel Arthur Grant * Jean Echo * Lloyd Wilder * Charles Morgan * Kim Shaomin Monsters * Gudis * Bogun * Gigasaurus * Gerukadon * Clone Jimmy * Deganja * Barrangas * Gazebo * Majaba * Bios * The Vegoids * Ryugulo * Veronica * UF0 * Kodalar * Kilazee * Mysterious Plankton Arsenal *Delta-Plasma Pendant *Hummer *Saltop Episodes Cast *Jack Shindo: Dore Kraus *Colonel Arthur Grant: Ralph Cotterill *Jean Echo: Gia Carides *Lloyd Wilder: Rick Adams *Charles Morgan: Lloyd Morris *Kim Shaomin: Grace Parr Voice actors *Jack Shindo, Ultraman Great: Matthew O'Sullivan, *Colonel Arthur Grant: *Jean Echo: *Lloyd Wilder: *Charles Morgan: *Kim Shaomin: Suit actors * : Robert Simper and Steve Apps Songs ;Opening theme * by Masaki Kyomoto ;Ending theme * by Masaki Kyomoto Merchandising Soundtrack The music was composed by Sinsuke Kazato and released by Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd (COCC-9745) in 1992. The soundtrack is very rare, it went quickly out of print and can now only be found used. The music was performed by The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Toyline The series also received an equally short-lived toyline from DreamWorks toys. The figures were 10" tall and included Ultraman, who came with a mini Jack Shindo, as well as his enemies Bogun, Barrangas, Majaba, Gerukadon and Kilazee. Also released was a toy of the Hummer vehicle which included a mini figure of . A toy of the Saltop was advertised on the back of all boxes, though it was never released or produced according to a Bandai representative. Despite their unique size, the toys were not without their problems. Jack, Charlie and the Hummer were well out of scale with the other toys, while the Ultraman figure lacked articulation. Also, despite being the main villain for the first story arc, neither version of Gudis was released as a toy in the DreamWorks line (although one did appear in Bandai's Japanese vinyl Ultraman line). Video Game A video game based on the series was released for /Super Famicom. It is thought to have awkward controls and an unfairly high level of difficulty by many. It was based around the same engine as a Japanese Ultraman game based on the original series. In the game Ultraman fights Gudis, Bogun, Degola, Barrangas, Gudis II, Zebokon, Majaba, Kodolar, and Kilazee. Comic book A comic book retelling of/sequel to the series, published in early 1993 by Harvey Comics' short-lived "Nemesis" label, was printed in the United States. However, the comic treats Ultraman Great as the same Ultraman from the original 1966 series. The comic has also been known to confuse Ultraman: Towards the Future with the subsequent American-produced series, Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (which was released as Ultraman Powered in Japan), of which the comic had included plenty of full-color publicity pictures in many issues to generate interest. After 4 issues (5 if you count the "Minus-one" issue), the comic series was canceled once Harvey Comics went out of business the next year. (Most of the issues had different collectible cover variants, a trend prevalent in the "Speculator Boom" at the time). Another unrelated comic book series, "Ultraman Tiga", was later published by Dark Horse Comics in 2003 (ten issues). External links *Watch on Hulu